<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Easier With Each Passing Day by sanctum_c</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27234778">Easier With Each Passing Day</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c'>sanctum_c</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Aerith Appreciation 2017 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Churches &amp; Cathedrals, First Meetings, Flowers, Grief/Mourning, Midgar (Compilation of FFVII), Moving On, Multi, Not Before Crisis (Compilation of FFVII) Compliant, Not Crisis Core (Compilation of FFVII) Compliant, Not Dirge of Cerberus (Compilation of FFVII) Compliant, Not Final Fantasy VII Remake Compliant, POV Aerith Gainsborough, Past Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough, Pre-Final Fantasy VII, Reconciliation, hypotheticals</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2017-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2017-02-06</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:03:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,123</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27234778</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>As much as Aeris wished he would come back, Zack never took up that much of her life in the end. She didn't look for him in her other partners; they were nothing like him. Some were a brief dalliance to kiss and cuddle. Others she invited into her bed. She was happy enough without him. But if the Planet could arrange it, it would be nice to one day come face to face with him again. She would not cry, she would not shout. No demanding answers or explanations for his absence. She would thank him for their time all those years ago and hope he had been keeping well too. She was not sure they could still be lovers, but they might be friends - if the situation ever arose.</i>
</p><hr/><p>Aeris processes Zack's disappearance.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Zack Fair/Aerith Gainsborough</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Aerith Appreciation 2017 [3]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1988371</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Easier With Each Passing Day</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written for the prompt 'Relationships'.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aeris tried not to think about Zack as she tended to the flowers. It did at least get easier with each passing day, the distance between the last time she saw him and now growing longer. A little under quarter of her life had now passed since she last spent time with him. Aeris paused and counted on her fingers; had she only spent a mere eleventh of her life in his company? It had seemed like so much more - it was why she waited after-all, hoping he would come back.</p><p>Sooner or later she would have to accept it wasn't going to happen. That he did live somewhere on the Upper Plate or Junon or Costa del Sol - anywhere but here. He might have some lush apartment with some beautiful Shinra exec's daughter or a rich heiress. Might even with kids now. She smiled without humour. If he was, so be it. Not the life for her, though he might have been at least capable of offering it. The time with him had been fun all the same. Little pressure and him so willing to be accommodating, gentle and patient. The kisses they shared had always curled her toes and when she was in bed alone at night it was hard not to imagine going further if an opportunity arose.</p><p>But they were forever short of time; Zack's visits for the city were so limited - and of those his ability to even get to Sector Five was by no means guaranteed. So they took their moments when they could; taking walks hand in hand, a snack at some dingy cafe. Zack always at least slightly in disguise; never in his SOLDIER uniform and always with a pair of sunglasses regardless of the season to hide his glowing pupils. They shied away from discussions about work; he in his capacity as an enforcer in the company responsible for at least her mother's death and some panicked running through the streets in her younger years. She far more familiar with the Turks than she ever felt comfortable admitting.</p><p>That last time, Zack had said goodbye, insisting that his next visit would be longer; he would get some leave and spend a week, no two weeks in Midgar. Slum it at one of the Sector Five inns to maximise their time together. Aeris had smiled and welcomed the idea, wondering what they might be able to do with all that time to spend together. Zack promised extravagant destinations; fancy restaurants on the upper plate. Even a trip outside the city. Hard not to jump at the chance, even as she wondered how plausible such a trip was. Even with him as a SOLDIER, could he get past the Turk's surveillance? No matter; he would try and that was the main thing.</p><p>And then he never came back. She waited the expected two weeks - and then two more. Missions over-running were not a new thing so there was little reason for concern. Only after two months did she start getting worried. Asking around the sector proved futile. No, no one had seen the guy with black spiky hair in ages now. She could not go to Shinra; asking after him would be to call their attention back down onto her and she had too much of that with the Turks already. Nothing to do but wait.</p><p>After three months the notion he might not be returning first occurred to her and she cried in the church, carefully drying her eyes before venturing home. The worst outcome sprang to mind; a mission gone wrong, and Zack now dead. She was nothing official to him; in no way a next of kin - and Shinra were so close-lipped about their SOLDIERs outside of Sephiroth. His passing might not get a public announcement. No. She could not think like that.</p><p>Even at six months she still had hope. A year and it started to wane. Eighteen months after she last saw Zack Fair and the nuisance notion came to her. She had not felt him return to the Planet. He had to be still alive. A month later and another thought. If he was alive where was he? Soon the notion of another woman, a refined lady he did not have to disguise himself when seeing came to mind. Hard to shake the notion. No; Zack was better than that. But then where was he?</p><p>She could wait for him; he was special and their memories together remained precious. And yet... There were others who began catching her eye after the second year passed. There were those before Zack and there were those after. If Zack ever returned she would welcome him with open arms and depending on just what had delayed him, might even forgive him everything. In the present she did not know his fate and she refused to be a slave to her past.</p><p>Undyne was a good kisser; she could make her toes curl almost as well as Zack had. Far more experienced than Luna a year before she even met Zack. Undyne could almost make her forget Zack - almost. Little reminders here and there, and that infuriating sense of curiosity about just what had befallen him to allow him to vanish so completely. But she was over him now. A year with Undyne, and it was debatable if she could even let him back into her life. Undyne moved on eventually; she had ambitions of living in Mideel. Half the Planet away and plenty far enough to make things untenable between them. They parted on good terms, both glad for the time they had spent together, sad it could not continue. They exchanged letters every few months - that carried on for the better part of two years. Zack sprang to mind as Aeris adapted to being single again, but the pain was less, so much weaker than it had been in those first months.</p><p>As much as she wished he would come back, he never took up that much of her life in the end. She didn't look for him in her other partners; they were nothing like him. Some were a brief dalliance to kiss and cuddle. Others she invited into her bed. She was happy enough without him. But if the Planet could arrange it, it would be nice to one day come face to face with him again. She would not cry, she would not shout. No demanding answers or explanations for his absence. She would thank him for their time all those years ago and hope he had been keeping well too. She was not sure they could still be lovers, but they might be friends - if the situation ever arose.</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>